Movie Audiences Remain Enchanted by Charming Disney Fantasy

Disney’s Enchanted, which generated the second-biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend ever a couple of weeks ago, remains number one at the U.S. box office for the second weekend in a row. The film brought in $17 million, double the amount of the second place finisher, the African-American comedy This Christmas.

The success of both these films seems to reflect audiences’ weariness of the sort of depressing films Hollywood has been releasing in recent months and the increasingly dark and grim conent of most network TV fiction series this year.

On thing very much in favor of Enchanted is the fact that it is a very good film, in addition to having a very positive spirit about it.

Rounding out the top five were Beowulf, the new release Awake, and the videogame-based thriller Hitman.

Beowulf, an interesting and intelligent but not exactly enjoyable film, has earned $68.6 million in its first three weeks—less than the $71 million another CGI film about ancient warriors, 300, earned in its first three days this past spring. I suspect that the grim and gruesome experience of 300 may have discouraged many moviegoers from giving Beowulf a try.

Awake, about a man who wakes up during surgery but cannot move or express himself, earned only $6 million in its opening weekend; its studio had expected it to bring in $10 million. Once again, a bleak story line seems to have kept audiences at bay.